Everything about this amazing book, from the cover title to the words and visuals across the pages, represents a passionate reminder that educators have been afforded the opportunity and responsibility to empower students. John and AJ move us closer to understanding what it means to empower students at the beginning of their book:

The dictionary lists several synonyms for empower including authorize, entitle, permit, allow andenable but John and AJ add a powerful and unique meaning in the book:

After looking back over the chat tweets, I knew that I’d found my guiding question for this post: “How can we EMPOWER students to create their own school game as a means to maximize learning?” With this question in mind, it didn’t take long to notice that our #G2great questions offered an organizational structure for me to reflect on my question. Looking at our questions and inspired tweets from AJ and our passionate #G2Great family led me to contemplate eight EMPOWER points:

EMPOWER 1: Expend precious available minutes in responsible ways

John and AJ open their book by reminding us that time is a precious commodity. Through their calculations, we realize that we are all given the same 400 minutes in each day. But that’s where the similarities end since how we choose to expend those minutes varies widely from teacher to teacher. I love AJ’s point that we may not be able to control all of our minutes due to the inevitable and ever-present school requirements, but we can and must choose to spend limited remaining time in the most responsive ways. Eugene eloquently emphasizes that when time is finite, it is even more important that our choices reflect what we value. How we spend time is a choice so we lose right to complain about time when we choose to spend it in ways that do not positively impact students.

EMPOWER 2: Inspire students to engage in creativity and innovation

I suspect that most teachers would be hard-pressed to suggest that creating classroom experiences that are creative and innovative is not a crucial instructional goal. Yet what we acknowledge pales in comparison to how we demonstrate those beliefs through our day-to-day actions. AJ’s words that creativity must be “unleashed” rather than “found” illustrates that this isn’t about merely identifying obligatory sporadic moments in the schedule but taking specific actions that will inspire creativity and innovation in ways that in turn inspire students and teachers to want even more creativity and innovation. Matt reminds us that we do this by ensuring students play a role in our instructional planning conversations as we make student voice and choice a priority.

EMPOWER 3: Take a stance to make student choice a daily priority

This idea that student voice and choice is an essential component of each learning day is a perfect segue to zoom in on choice as a primary factor of empowerment. AJ emphasizes that choice leads to ownership and thus empowerment and deep learning. This means that our willingness to offer choice in the learning process can have a positive or negative impact on student learning. Fran made the point that for many children, this has not been part of their ‘school game’ reality. This inspires us to begin to craft a new reality as we incorporate choice into each learning day and do so in the most authentic possible ways.

EMPOWER 4: Embrace technology as a window to the world

Any time the discussion turns to empowerment, technology will inherently become part of that conversation. Technology reflects the world that our students reside in and so it makes sense to invite that world into our classrooms. AJ reminds us that technology is not a curriculum add-on but a powerful tool that can be seamlessly integrated into every learning day. I love AJ’s description of technology as an “on-demand experience.” This motivates us to shift our perspective from an activity we schedule to what we can bring to the learning table any time of day. Roman also reminds us that breaking down our school walls to willingly incorporate technology opens this world to students and expands their horizons and our view of what is possible.

EMPOWER 5: Understand the distinction between fail-URE and fail-ING

I found myself reading and rereading chapter 9 (page 147 to 156) as I was intrigued by these distinctive terms. I was clearly not alone in my fascination since many others took notice of this notion as well. AJ helps us understand these terms by considering one as an end point (Fail-URE) as often reflected by grades or test scores while the other is viewed as learning that can change over time (Fail-ING) through experiences that will support new or growing learning. I loved Rebekah’s description of Fail-ING as a process of ‘evolution, forward movement, and growth.’ This view celebrates the messy process of learning that occurs when we are willing to give students time and support to view that mess as a learning opportunity.

EMPOWER 6: Amplify the potential of your professional impact

AJ highlighted a key goal that can help us dramatically accelerate our impact potential. Empowerment is not simply what we do during the learning day but what students are able to do after the learning day is over when they leave our care. Our children will live in the world of the future and so we create learning opportunities that will prepare them for that world because we believe that they could make a difference by making that world a better place than it would have been without them. Vicki reinforces this point by referring to the ripple effect that can move learning from our personal instructional space out into the world that exists beyond that space.

EMPOWER 7: Broaden assessment to include your learner voices

I smiled when I read the title for chapter 8: “Assessment should be fun. No, really we’re serious.” (page 125) It’s hard to envision that spirit given the current testing and grading climate. Yet AJ asks us to acknowledge that effective assessment (the “fun” kind) is about much more than a grade. Authentic assessment invites students to become an integral part of those assessments. Amanda reminds us that this is not about a grade or score that focuses on a product but the process students engage in as they are immersed in that learning experience. Once we are willing to adjust our emphasis on the process, we make room for students to ssume a central assessment position.

EMPOWER 8: Create a flexible instructional student-centered design

In our final chat question, AJ acknowledges that empowerment is not about giving students free rein but widening our perspective as we incorporate a more flexible view. He reminds us that this is not an either-or proposition since we can offer students a supportive structure while still making room for empowerment through student choice in content. Christina reinforced this point by emphasizing that we must relinquish our control as ‘keeper” of every learning experience in order to open the door to discovery. When we create an environment that feeds student-inspired curiosity, then discovery and empowerment are likely to follow.

When I wrote our #G2Great chat questions as I read Empower, little did I know that John and AJ would not only inspire those questions but also inspire this post. Through their book and our #G2Great chat we are given an opportunity to initiate an exploratory venture that addresses my initial question: “How can we EMPOWER students to create their own school game as a means to maximize learning?” As I look back on our chat, I think this begins by giving ourselves permission to invite students to OWN learning and thus craft their own game. I can’t imagine a more relevant goal to work toward. We are so grateful to John and AJ for moving us ever-closer to empowering student learning and we know that we are about to launch on a worthy and exciting journey side-by-side with our student.

Perhaps the first step in this new game plan is illustrated in a tweet from Trevor Bryan.

For decades, we have understood in principle that kids need to talk about their reading. But in practice, we have been slower to develop a broad repertoire of classroom structures that stimulate, facilitate, guide, and assess that kind of abundant intelligent talk. Laura Robb to the rescue once more. (xiii)

Laura Robb to the rescue indeed. In 249 pages of brilliance, she offers a treasure chest of powerful practices that are sure to promote the abundant intelligent talk that will lift student voices into the learning air in celebratory harmony. Laura’s book beautifully organizes 35 powerhouse lessons into six thoughtful categories of student centered dialogue:

Turn-and-Talk

Whole Class Discussions

Partner Talk

Small-Group Discussions

In-the-Head Conversations

Teacher-Student Discussions

Our #G2Great conversation with Laura reflected a clear shared commitment for engaging students in meaningful reading and writing talk. But Laura lives and breathes this commitment in her own work in classrooms and through her writing. After the chat, Laura shared four key ideas with me via email that she hopes our #G2Great family will take away from this experience And so as I reflect on her email message and her #G2Great chat tweets, I’d like to depart from my traditional chat overview by merging Laura’s messages and tweets into four Conversation Inspirations. These will offer a professional guide as you generate the abundant intelligent Laura-inspired talk our children deserve:

I’m hoping teachers re-evaluated the importance of talk. Talk is an oral text, and students do a great deal of thinking, considering, and refining to craft a response others can understand. I see talk as a prelude to meaningful writing. (Laura Robb’s email message)

My reflection: Our first step is to take professional responsibility for this process. We cannot create an instructional setting where student-centered talk is valued by students until we are willing to hold this process in the highest esteem. Before we can create an environment where the high quality talk we desire for students becomes a habit of mind, we must acknowledge our role in this process. When talk is viewed as a professional must then it will become the WHY that drives us each step along the way to this rich collaborative dialogue. Laura reminds us that this is not an occasional event to be scheduled at key intervals in the day, but a non-negotiable daily priority that permeates the very air that we breathe across every learning day.

Conversation Inspiration 2: Celebrate the Talk Journey with the Gift of Time

It’s important to know that it takes time and practice for student-led discussions to run smoothly and achieve depth of thinking! The gift of time, practice, and debriefings are crucial. (Laura Robb’s email message)

My reflection: In order to create the powerful discourse we deem worthy of our students, we must first build a strong bridge between teacher supported and student engaged talk. We begin by creating a safe and supportive environment that will nurture the kind of engaging talk we want for students. Within this safe environment we can then offer the instructional models to demonstrate each step of the talk process. These scaffolded supports allow us to show our students what rich dialogue looks like, sounds like and feels like so that we can begin to relinquish responsibility to them for accountable talk. With productive and meaningful talk always in our sights, we heed Laura’s wise reminder that we cannot rush this supportive phase.Conversation Inspiration 3: Hand over the Reins of Student Ownership

When students lead discussions, they have multiple opportunities to observe peers reasoning process as well as valuing multiple interpretations supported by the text. (Laura Robb’s email message)

My reflection: This release of responsibility allows us to create a forum that will support the kind of real life conversations we want students to have with their peers. These authentic conversations are grounded in ‘passionate and intense’ talk that we want students to continue to have with others long after they leave our classrooms – the very kind of conversations we have in our own lives. Once we have set the talk stage with support, we then begin to step back and allow students to craft the structure of these conversations so that they can assume control of the decision-making process. We trust our students to make these important decisions based on the foundation we have put into place as our role shifts from a supportive one to that of facilitator as we use these experiences to fine-tune and extend learning.Conversation Inspiration 4: Value the Talk Process Through Your Actions

Don’t grade talk. Talk is thinking out loud and writing is thinking on paper. Talk should always precede writing. Teachers can model various journal responses that can be assessed and have students write a paragraph that explains their position or defends a point of view. I don’t grade readers’ notebooks as I view those as exploratory thinking that students can refine, adjust, and change. Out of notebook writing can come assessment projects.(Laura Robb’s email message)

My reflection: I opened this overview by emphasizing that we must begin by valuing the talk process as we make it integral to every instructional day. We maximize our framework by stretching talk across all content areas but this is only the beginning. We are cognizant that all we choose to say and do will send a message to students about how we view these experiences as we allow these conversations to grow with students. In other words, our day-to-day actions and how we treat the talk experience with the respect it deserves will impact students most. Making time and space for student-centered talk is important but we must also show in every aspect of our practices that we value an organic process for meaningful dialogue. We do this by choosing not to apply a grade to this process-based practice, by creating experiences worth talking about and by celebrating that students assume increasing control. We acknowledge that student-centered talk cannot be relegated to a list of narrow questions that revolve around trivial conversations. Above all we trust students to reach ever higher as their conversations begin to take on a life of their own and we honor this transformational student-driven process each step of the way.

Read, Talk, Write reflects Laura’s commitment to the role student talk plays in the learning process. We are grateful for her deep belief in the power of literary conversations and her support in helping us to envision this process through her very wise eyes. In the closing words of her wonderful book, Laura extends each of us an invitation to join her on this journey so that we too can breathe life into abundant intelligent talk. Laura’s vision of daily student engagement in literary conversations is sure to inspire dedicated educators everywhere to thoughtfully craft rich student-led dialogue across the learning day:

You are the key to developing highly literate students. And when you make learning meaningful for students with literary conversations and writing about reading, you keep students at the center of instruction, inspiring them to read, think, talk, and write– and continually improve their reading and writing expertise. (page 236)

We accept your invitation Laura and we will carry each of your conversation inspirations in our back pockets as we put your words into action where it matters most – in high impact talk infused classrooms across the country!

My growing friendship with Brian was an unexpected gift that began when I was perusing new books at Stenhouse and happened upon his book by a stroke of pure luck. The title literally reached out from the screen and grabbed me by the heartstrings so I excitedly opened the preview and began reading the first page of his introduction:

“Today I’m worried. I’m worried because I know too many classrooms where mini-lessons begin with “seed” stories that germinate from laminated watermelons, predetermined conferences that always start with a compliment and end with a next step, and, if it’s included at all, an author’s chair or sharing time entirely driven by the teacher to reinforce a point he or she made during the mini-lesson. Rarely do children reflect on their own writing. And if they do, it’s often to fulfill a teaching agenda rather than a learner’s agenda. When did packaged programs and Pinterest replace children as the driving force of instruction? When did everything start to look the same? (Brian Kissel, page 5)

Brian’s powerful words and two questions made it clear that I had just found a kindred spirit. In typical enthusiastic Mary style, I immediately sent an email with a #G2Great invitation at the forefront of my mind. And so began our first exchange illustrating our shared concern:

Mary: I just found out about your new book, When Writers Drive the Workshop and I must say I’m very excited by your message. I’ve become increasingly frustrated that the heart and soul of writer’s workshop has been confiscated and steadily replaced in far too many schools with instructional boxes that are turning teachers into compliant disseminators. Your book was a breath of fresh air.

Brian: For the past several years I’ve been bothered by the workshop being overtaken by these packaged programs, scripted lessons, Pinterest, etc. Our writers should be the curriculum! So, I really wanted to write a book that puts the focus back on writers and gives teachers permission to trust that their writers can lead the way. I hope that message comes across in the book.

Oh yes, my wonderful new friend… that message came across loud and clear! Early in our #G2Great chat with Brian, our first conversation resurfaced in a Twitter exchange:

Brian’s words should strengthen our resolve to reclaim writer’s workshop in honor of our writers. As I write celebratory words of an unexpected friendship, I reflect on our #G2Great chatand find six Brian-inspired Driving Lessons to gently nudge us to return writers to a rightful place of honor in a writer’s workshop model envisioned by great minds so many years ago:

Driving Lesson 1: Keep the Writer in Your View

If we hope to reclaim a writer’s workshop in the spirit of these great minds, we must begin by relinquishing a death grip on lessons created by those who do not know our writers. A quick google search of the words “writer’s workshop” puts an unlimited array of resources at your fingertips. But do we ever pause to consider if this plethora of questionable grab and go ideas and tools are worthy of our writers? Lesson scripts are plentiful in this day and age, but Donald Grave’s vision that we must teach the writer should highlight our obligation to reach higher by being responsive to the writer in front of us.

Driving Lesson 2: Be Present in Writer Moments

Brian reminds us that one of the most important ways to be responsive to the writer in front of us is to truly listen to the thinking we readily and willingly invite in the course of writing. We can only glean from the wisdom each writer brings to the writing table by paying close attention to little voices that rise joyfully above our own. When we are willing to step into precious learning moments that occur within the writer’s workshop experience, we acknowledge that our silence can make room for in-the-head writerly wisdom – wisdom that can lead us in unexpected directions we may never have considered before.

Driving Lesson 3: Respect Writer Perceptions

The first question we should be asking is, “Who is the writer in front of me?” The value of reflection, both from the writer’s and teacher’s perspective, was a recurring theme across the chat. Reflection allows us to see the writer from all sides using both a cognitive and emotional lens. How our children perceive of themselves as writers will play an essential role in the instructional process. In the course of listening we begin to understand the writer through their writing, their words and their actions during the writing workshop experience as well as across the entire learning day. The writing is the vehicle but the writer is our inspiration and instructional motivation that moves us into action.

Driving Lesson 4: Embrace Writer Instincts

Why is it that goal setting is often viewed as something we do for the writer rather than using the writing experience as an opportunity to turn thinking inward. When we use their writing as a source of goal-setting inspiration, we can help children notice new possibilities as they emerge so that they can take ownership of this process. We support this thinking by acknowledging in the moment understandings that can move children from where they are to where they could be. When we actively engage writers in learning from the mindset of a writer in action, we can co-collaborate a journey of unique student-inspired step by step moves that will allow us to merge both their needs and interests.

Driving Lesson 5: Celebrate Writer Journeys

The word ‘choice’ came up repeatedly in each chat discussion. Brian reminded us that we not only need to ensure that choice is seen as an integral part of the writer’s workshop model in general but that we broaden our view of choice. When we explore choice from a broader scope, we can begin to consider how to offer our writers choice in not just what they write but also where, how, and with whom they write. Choice is a critical ingredient as it actively engages the writer in a writer-centered view of writing where joy ignite new thinking. But this will only occur if we welcome our writers to the decision making table.

Driving Lesson 6: Release Writer Potential

Our final lesson begins with another important question, “Why do we write? First and foremost we write for written expression within a safe environment where we can explore who we are and what we think and feel. But an inspired exchange with Courtney Kinney illustrates that we also write to share our ideas with others in ways that could actually change the world we live in. When we beckon a wider audience, we increase the potential for social change within and beyond our school walls. These shared experiences can give our writers the confidence and desire to use their words in powerful and purposeful ways.

As I write the closing words of this post, I can’t help but smile as I reflect back on my passionate exploration that led me to Brain and his amazing book. What began as a shared concern about the current state of writer’s workshop has since become a collective commitment to at long last put the writer back into writer’s workshop. We are inspired by Brian’s wisdom and his devotion to children. This devotion is evident with his book dedication to Tameka, a child he describes as his most important teacher who “taught me that writers must drive the workshop.”

Brian’s Twitter page quote by Isaac Asimov further reflects his spirit of resolve:

Your words are ‘planting the seeds that will flower’ into amazing young writers who reside in the writer’s workshop our children deserve Brian…